Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-01
A VERY CROOKED SUBJECT.
Millions of Corkscsews Twisted Into Tho1s-
snds of Forms and Used by Every bods.
New York Mail and Express

Millions of CorkscEews Twisted Into Thoas
ands of Forms and Used by Everybody.
New York Mail and Express.
There seems to be nothing to say about
a corkscrew. There are millions Of cork
| screws made each year. 1t isn't generally
known that the Corkscrew IS made in
largest quantities in Newark, n. j.
! There is one firm in Newark that beats
! the world st making and selling cork
| screws. G. I. Williamson, who belongs
! to the firm, says that, in round numbers,
! there must be l50, 600 corkscreWs
made by TINS one Newark firm lest year,
or corkscrews enough for nearly every
voter on the globe. If the corkscrews,
which average three inches in length,
that we're made during the ye&r 1886
! could have been laid length to length,
they would have reached from New York
to San Francisco and then spanned
the broad Pacific and touched the shores
of Japan. II all these screws could
have been melted into one big screw,
some Colossus could have pulled the cork
from the surface of the earth and set the
geysers spouting and thevOlCanOes erupt-
ing from the interior Of the globe To
make the 100000 required seventy
i've men, simply for the twisting Of
screws, 20 say nothing Of the making of
handles,
One would hardly think that more than
three or four varieties were required,
but there are about forty on tho market.
They include the ring handle, steel wire
screws for demjohns and large bottles;
the double-ripg, handily enCssed pocket
screw; the folding screw and the broad
wire handle screw. Some time ago
an ice pick and cigar bCX opener was
made with a screw concealed il the steel
tube handle. The tube cGn be slipped eff
aIj the ice pick forms the handle CT the
screw. Another novelty has a brush in
the handle, 50 that the cOlored waiter is
not obliged TO run his fingers around the
inside OF the neck If wine bottle to re-
move the PARTICLES Cf cork and dust. For
champagne bottles screw is made with
blade in one end CO the handle 10 cut
the twne around the cork Another
handle contains both the knife ana brush
On the handle. The power corkscrew is
2p ingenious arrangement which
saves the knees and arms from 8
tussel with az obstinate and fraC-
tiOus cork. A cone OF steel fits over
the neck Of the bottle, and the screw
draws the cork while the cone presses on
the bottle. In addition 10 ms corkscrew
patents, 6 Newark man amused himself
by twisting up wire ia almost every con-
ceivable shape, thereby supplying the
tve-Cent counters with novelties and
himself vita 3 comfortable income, in
addition to that previously made by his
ingenious faculties. The spiral thumb
screw, which car be pushed into g board
temporary hat rack, is one of his inYen-
tions. It's only piece OF twisted wire.
spiral paper hooks, WGll hooks, list and
coat racks, spiral picture nails, spiral
carpet taCks and stair buttons, card sus-
penders and holders, oil files, soup
holders, pickle forks, toastiDg and vege-
inventions, land IRE manufactured in New
ark.
The funniest Of all the corkscrews is q
left-hapded one. The first one was made
tor d left-handed barkeeper and it suited
so well that the Newark firm now keeps
them constantly in stock. Another New !
ak firm made 800 900 pocket corkscrews
u year. The question naturally arises, |
what is done with them all? Lots OF
them are broken, IF course, and al ss-
looms keep dozens of them on hand. /!
Large New York restaurants buy
direct from Newark, !
and get them by the hundreds at !
time. 1t is no unusual thing for big hard /
ware houses in the city, Boston, Philadel- |.
phis, Pittsburg, Cincinnati end the big /
western cities TO buy 10000 corkscrews /
at time. II the corkscrew is any sign of |
and the drinking habit in .
general, then The Prohibitionists better /
get more alarmed than ever. After all, |
isn't the alarming increase in the produc- |
ton of corkscreTs the coming evil of the |
day? Shouldn't the corkscreW go first /
and the saloon afterWard, in the p stform |
Of ell well regulated modern Crusgdes: